I once wanted to become a freedom fighter. It was 1996 A.D. and I was in class 5th….I think Ms Brar was my class teacher. I was pretty much inspired by no. of freedom movement based TV serials telecasted by DD1.
Freedom fighting wasn’t a career option – the middle classes still wanted their children to become an Engineer, a Doctor or a Collector. I decided to become a freedom fighter, because I didn’t like what the only Engineer & Doctor I knew did for a living. I know, I was only 9 years old then…but you got to agree that I had special something in me at that time too ;)
In order to become a freedom fighter, I started practicing. By early October 1996 I could hide a lot of things under my shirt like pressure cooker, whole bunch of audio cassettes, my school bag and my cricket bat. My guru in this exercise was a guy named Sajid (he used to live in our colony) a class 8th student who told me that he was a retired freedom fighter. I followed his advice, and spent at least 20 hours a day, trying to hide all kinds of things under my shirt. Sajid said his family was full of freedom fighters. He even swore that his 80 year old grand pa was a freedom fighter – I knew, something was wrong…but back then I didn’t have the courage to question him. When I asked him why he had become a freedom fighter at such a young age, he narrated the story of his chachu’s (uncle’s) bravery.
Like the rest of their family, his uncle some XYZ Khan had also enrolled to be a freedom fighter when he was all of 24. After the training was over –He was sent to India to start the movement, where he was captured by Indian Army and then tortured to death in 1990. Sajid also claimed that his uncle has visited him in his dreams and has stated that soon Kashmir will be azaad!!!!
I could see pride in Sajid khan’s eyes as he was in a world of his own while narrating the story.But this story rang bells in my head…..I wanted to be a freedom fighter but I knew that India is already independent, and Kashmir being part of India is also Azaad! then why would Indian army kill an Indian freedom fighter?
I got suspicious of this guy Sajid and I started my own enquiry about him like the one they used to do in TV serial Tehkikaat. I questioned his mates who used to play with me. There was a guy named Sudeep, he told me the real story.
“Sajid’s chachu was a terrorist trained from Pakistan occupied Kashmir.”
I knew about terrorists…I had seen ROJA already...the guy who kidnaps the hero was terrorist operating in Kashmir….I stopped talking to this Sajid and left my dream of becoming a freedom fighter….and decided to pursue something normal :P.
Sajid was my freedom fighting inspiration for a long time (almost 7 months). And it was almost 3 years after that that I realized freedom fighters like sajid's uncle don’t retire, as Sajid had claimed, but are killed by security forces or form some separatist organization like one of the parties in hurriyat conference.
P.S: I got inspired by a article i read somewhere "want to be terrorist" and thought about writing how i wanted to be freedom fighter unknowingly practicing terrorist acts :P.
Freedom fighting wasn’t a career option – the middle classes still wanted their children to become an Engineer, a Doctor or a Collector. I decided to become a freedom fighter, because I didn’t like what the only Engineer & Doctor I knew did for a living. I know, I was only 9 years old then…but you got to agree that I had special something in me at that time too ;)
In order to become a freedom fighter, I started practicing. By early October 1996 I could hide a lot of things under my shirt like pressure cooker, whole bunch of audio cassettes, my school bag and my cricket bat. My guru in this exercise was a guy named Sajid (he used to live in our colony) a class 8th student who told me that he was a retired freedom fighter. I followed his advice, and spent at least 20 hours a day, trying to hide all kinds of things under my shirt. Sajid said his family was full of freedom fighters. He even swore that his 80 year old grand pa was a freedom fighter – I knew, something was wrong…but back then I didn’t have the courage to question him. When I asked him why he had become a freedom fighter at such a young age, he narrated the story of his chachu’s (uncle’s) bravery.
Like the rest of their family, his uncle some XYZ Khan had also enrolled to be a freedom fighter when he was all of 24. After the training was over –He was sent to India to start the movement, where he was captured by Indian Army and then tortured to death in 1990. Sajid also claimed that his uncle has visited him in his dreams and has stated that soon Kashmir will be azaad!!!!
I could see pride in Sajid khan’s eyes as he was in a world of his own while narrating the story.But this story rang bells in my head…..I wanted to be a freedom fighter but I knew that India is already independent, and Kashmir being part of India is also Azaad! then why would Indian army kill an Indian freedom fighter?
I got suspicious of this guy Sajid and I started my own enquiry about him like the one they used to do in TV serial Tehkikaat. I questioned his mates who used to play with me. There was a guy named Sudeep, he told me the real story.
“Sajid’s chachu was a terrorist trained from Pakistan occupied Kashmir.”
I knew about terrorists…I had seen ROJA already...the guy who kidnaps the hero was terrorist operating in Kashmir….I stopped talking to this Sajid and left my dream of becoming a freedom fighter….and decided to pursue something normal :P.
Sajid was my freedom fighting inspiration for a long time (almost 7 months). And it was almost 3 years after that that I realized freedom fighters like sajid's uncle don’t retire, as Sajid had claimed, but are killed by security forces or form some separatist organization like one of the parties in hurriyat conference.
P.S: I got inspired by a article i read somewhere "want to be terrorist" and thought about writing how i wanted to be freedom fighter unknowingly practicing terrorist acts :P.
